CMS NEWS: CMS Invites Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organizations to Submit Special Innovation Projects to Expand Their Reach in Improving Care Delivery

CMS BLOG

https://blog.cms.gov/2016/03/30/cms-invites-quality-innovation-network-quality-improvement-organizations-to-submit-special-innovation-projects-to-expand-their-reach-in-improving-care-delivery/

March 30, 2016

CMS Invites Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organizations to Submit Special Innovation Projects to Expand Their Reach in Improving Care Delivery

By: Patrick Conway, MD, MSc

       Acting Principal Deputy Administrator

       Deputy Administrator for Innovation and Quality

       CMS Chief Medical Officer

     Kate Goodrich, MD MHS

     Director

     Center for Clinical Standards and Quality

     Jean Moody-Williams, RN, MPP

     Deputy Director

     Center for Clinical Standards and Quality

     Dennis Wagner, MPA

     Director, Quality Improvement and Innovation Group

     Center for Clinical Standards and Quality

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program is constantly evolving to help ensure that Medicare beneficiaries receive better care, better health, and greater value. Today, CMS is announcing the program’s next evolution: two projects focused on supporting and scaling quality improvement innovations.

With this announcement, Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organizations (QIN-QIOs) can collaborate with health care providers and/or partners to compete for 28 Special Innovation Project (SIP) awards that fall within two topic categories totaling $8 million. Statements of Objectives will be released in early April to the QIO community. Information regarding award dates will be included in the Statement of Objectives.

SIPs are two-year quality improvement projects that align with the goals of the CMS Quality Strategy(https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/QualityInitiativesGenInfo/CMS-Quality-Strategy.html) and emphasize the power of partnerships. There are two categories of SIPs for QIN-QIOs to consider:

1. “Innovations that Advance Local Efforts for Better Care and Smarter Spending,” which will address healthcare quality issues that occur within specific QIN-QIO regions.

2. “Interventions that are Ripe for Spread and Scalability,” which will focus on expanding the scope and national impact of a quality improvement project that has experienced proven but limited success. The expectation is that similar benefits would be experienced on a large scale if spread throughout the greater health care community.

The scalability category aligns with the CMS Strategic Innovation Engine (SIE) (http://sie.qioprogram.org/), a new endeavor launched in August of 2015. The SIE is working to rapidly move innovative, evidence-based quality practices from research to implementation through the QIO Program. In consultation with the SIE Executive Leadership Council, CMS is seeking projects that:

• Streamline patient flow in various health care settings, including hospital units, outpatient clinics, primary care offices, ambulatory surgical centers, and cancer centers resulting in efficiencies, improved satisfaction, decreased mortality, better care, healthier people, and smarter spending.
• Work with health plans and/or care coordination providers to deploy an integrated approach to post-acute care that results in enhanced care management, safe transitions from one care setting to another, improved health outcomes, and reductions in harms.
• Increase value, patient affordability, and appropriate use of specialty drugs by applying evidenced based criteria to prescribing practices and by monitoring effectiveness when providers have a choice(s) among equally effective drugs with differing costs.

• Address acute pain management. For example, more is needed to assist sickle cell patients: from accurate identification of their illness to education of emergency department staff on sickle cell disease while addressing the cultural stigmas often associated with the disease.

• Utilize big data analytics to reduce preventable harm in healthcare.

We encourage those in the larger healthcare community who are leading quality work in these areas, with interventions and proven results, to reach out and explore potential partnerships with QIN-QIOs. Through collaboration with healthcare providers, patients, families, and other key stakeholders, QIN-QIOs have tremendous potential to take those interventions to the national level and improve the health care delivery system by tapping into new settings of care and building upon the knowledge gained by people working on the front line of providing quality health care.

The QIN-QIOs selected to carry out these SIPs will leverage their data-driven approach, extensive partnerships, and the voices of patients and families to positively impact Medicare beneficiaries in their communities and nationwide.

The QIO Program’s 14 QIN-QIOs work with providers, community partners and beneficiaries on multiple data-driven quality improvement initiatives to improve patient safety, reduce harm, engage patients and families, improve clinical care and reduce healthcare disparities. For more information about the CMS QIO Program and for a complete list of QIN-QIOs, please visit the QIO Program website(http://www.qioprogram.org/).